Tag Archives: east precinct

For Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods, SPD’s research shows the top public safety concern is… traffic safety

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(Image: SPD Micro-Community Policing Plans)

(Image: SPD Micro-Community Policing Plans)

Despite a weekend of deadly gun violence and a debate over public safety at the center of the battle for an open seat on the Seattle City Council, the most important decision on the November ballot for voters around Capitol Hill and the Central District might be the city’s $1.55 billion transportation levy.

Traffic safety was identified by East Precinct respondents as the number one public safety threat in their area of the city, according to the latest annual Micro-Community Policing Plans survey.

The Seattle Police Department says it uses the yearly research process to create specific public safety plans for every neighborhood.

The most recent 2023 results (PDF) were released quietly earlier this year and are being shared as the Seattle University-based research project is launching its 2024 survey.

“A report on the survey results will be provided to the Seattle Police Department to help them better understand your neighborhood’s safety and security concerns,” the Seattle U research team says.

Despite last year’s pace of record homicides in Seattle including seven murders in the East Precinct and citywide concerns about police hiring, the Seattle U research team identified the East Precinct respondents’ top concerns as Traffic Safety, Property Crime, Homelessness, and Community Capacity, or concerns about the “capacity of non-police entities to address public safety,” the research team said. Continue reading →

Free speech: Jury awards $680K to protesters arrested in 2021 Capitol Hill anti-cop graffiti case

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Four protesters arrested in the winter of 2021 for marking the East Precinct with anti-police messages in chalk and charcoal were awarded $680,000 by a jury last week in a federal civil rights lawsuit that has played out over years of injunctions and appeals.

Lawyers for Derek Tucson, Robin Snyder, Monsieree de Castro, and Erik Moya-Delgado argued the Seattle Police Department and officers Ryan Kennard, Dylan Nelson, Alexander Patton, and Michele Letizia violated the group’s First Amendment free-speech and peaceful assembly rights over the temporary anti-police messages scrawled in chalk and charcoal around the East Precinct and on cement barriers placed outside the facility at 12th and Pine in the wake of the 2020 protests. Continue reading →

SPD report: Hiring struggles continue as response times in East Precinct lowest priority calls climb above one hour, 43 minutes

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Fresh off the council’s approval of a new plan hoped to “accelerate” police hiring with a new recruitment and retention program, the Seattle Police Department says it is on pace to hire even fewer officers than it did last year.

In a report scheduled for the Tuesday morning meeting of the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee, SPD says it “continues to have difficulty recruiting and retaining officers, recording a net loss of 345 officers since 2020 and is currently on track to hire fewer officers in 2024 than it did last year,” according to a council brief on the matter.

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A debate over Seattle’s ‘Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot’ plan at the District 3 public safety meeting

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Report: ShotSpotter wastes officers time, provides little help in court, targets overpoliced communities — syracuse.com

Last week’s D3 meeting (Image: CHS)

Tuesday brings the final day of public comment on a roster of “Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot Technologies” being pushed toward deployment in Seattle by Mayor Bruce Harrell and proponents of boosting the city’s struggling police department with better surveillance and intelligence systems.

The proposal would create a plan “a new public safety program that will combine a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) System with an Acoustic Gunshot Location System (AGLS) integrated with Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) software together in one view,” the administration says. Last year, the Seattle City Council approved Harrell’s request for $1.5 million in the 2024 budget to test acoustic gunshot detection systems like ShotSpotter.

Supporters say the new surveillance system would help boost the department’s ability to quickly respond to gun violence and knock down the city’s record pace of homicides. But examples of real world deployments show the tech doesn’t necessarily work as advertised and can actually hinder police response.

With a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night and online feedback also being gathered for the meeting, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth heard more from constituents at the latest in her office’s monthly public safety meetings held last week.

In the meeting held at North Capitol Hill’s Seattle Prep, there was a stark divide on the hopes around ShotSpotter. Continue reading →

Seattle free to try to crack down on graffiti after appeal in East Precinct chalk protest case

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Seattle’s lawless days as a graffiti free for all are over after a federal appeals court ruling in a Capitol Hill free speech case.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned a 2023 ruling that the city’s vandalism laws were unconstitutional in a case over arrests made in 2021 over chalk and charcoal messages scrawled outside Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

The messages are a frequent and continuing protest method near the 12th and Pine facility and outside Seattle Police Department facilities across the city.

The previous ruling forced the city to back off prosecution for graffiti or tagging while City Attorney Ann Davison’s office appealed the case. Continue reading →

Anniversary of Jaahnavi Kandula’s death brings decision in officer accountability investigation, vigil at East Precinct

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Punishment is in the labor contract-limited hands of Chief Adrian Diaz as the civilian-led Office of Police Accountability has found Seattle Police veteran and union vice president Dan Auderer violated department rules when he joked about the January, 2023 death of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula with Seattle Police Officer Guild president Mike Solan.

Tuesday night, demonstrators gathered outside the East Precinct to mark the one-year anniversary of Kandula’s death. E Pine at 12th was reported briefly closed to traffic during the vigil and march.

“We will never stop fighting for Jaahnavi, until there is accountability and justice in her name,” one participant posted about the vigil. “We will continue to show up every year to remind these 2 how precious and valuable Jaahnavi’s life was. We will never forgive and we will never forget.” Continue reading →

SPD orders inspections after video of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct shows Trump flag, mock gravestone — UPDATE

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The Seattle Police Department is apologizing and Chief Adrian Diaz has ordered inspections of the precinct headquarters across the city after revelation of a video from 2021 showing a mock gravestone for a Black teen shot and killed by police and a Trump flag on the walls of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

CHS reported here on the body-worn video taken around the time of the January 6th United States Capitol attack showing a “TRUMP 2020” flag and a mock gravestone for Damarius Butts — a Black 19-year-old killed in a “justified” shooting by Seattle Police.

Friday, SPD released a statement on the video. “While we do not know the origin of the items in question from 2 ½ years ago, there is no doubt they are inappropriate,” the statement begins. “We recognize the hurt and disappointment this has caused.” Continue reading →

What was on the walls of the East Precinct’s break room in January 2021? A Trump flag and a mock gravestone for a Black teen shot dead by police

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What is the vibe in the break room at the East Precinct above 12th and Pine?

Around the time of the January 6th United States Capitol attack, a “TRUMP 2020” flag hung from the wall. And a mock gravestone for Damarius Butts — a Black 19-year-old killed in a “justified” shooting by Seattle Police — sat on a shelf.

The Seattle Times reported Wednesday on officer body cam video surfaced in the court proceedings around this settled East Precinct chalk graffiti protest case that shows the inappropriate and possibly illegal displays.

“As one of the officers stands to respond to the vandalism report, his body camera sweeps the room, showing the Trump flag, a U.S. flag and a silhouette of a tardigrade — a tiny organism celebrated for being virtually unkillable,” the Seattle Times reports. “The video also captures, on a shelf, a small gray mock tombstone, bearing a clenched black fist, the name Damarius Butts, his age (19) and the date he was killed by officers: April 20, 2017.”

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SPD 2023 staffing report: It now takes more than an hour for an East Precinct cop to show up for low priority calls

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The East Precinct is down about three sergeants and two or three officers from last year, according to the latest “Sworn Staffing, Finances and Performance Metrics Report” from the Seattle Police Department. Meanwhile, exits from the city’s total police force have slowed since last summer, officials say, and response times for the most serious 911 calls have stabilized — though, especially in the East Precinct, lower priority response times have gotten significantly worse.

Officials are discussing the report Tuesday morning at a session of the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee. Continue reading →

Despite Capitol Hill and Central District smash and grabs, East Precinct burglary reports have plunged

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Aftermath of a recent break-in at the Hillcrest Market

With reporting by Hannah Saunders

Despite a rise in concern over property crime in the city to end the year, Seattle Police statistics show that either people aren’t reporting the crimes, or a return to more normal patterns and increased emphasis on organized retail theft have put a dent in surging shoplifting and burglary totals in the city and across Capitol Hill and the Central District.

Still, around 100 break-ins are reported every month in the East Precinct, most targeting commercial buildings. And the individual anecdotes are frustrating. A week before Thanksgiving, the manager of Capitol Hill’s Hillcrest Market posted pictures to the CHS Facebook Group showing the aftermath of a break-in that targeted the Summit Ave grocery for thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes. It was the third time in a month the shop had either been ripped off or broken into. Continue reading →